All the latest genealogy industry news based on press releases issued by genealogy vendors, societies, educators and other service providers.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Genes Reunited Announces Sponsorship of Long Lost Family on ITV1

LONDON, April 15 2011

Genes Reunited, one of the UK's leading family history websites, has announced it has been named official sponsor of ITV1's brand new prime time show 'Long Lost Family', airing in spring 2011.

The six-part series will be presented by Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell and will help members of the public track down family with whom they have lost contact, exploring the background and context of each estrangement, and the emotional process of trying to find a lost relative.

Genes Reunited was launched in 2003 and is currently one of the UK's largest family history websites with over 11 million members worldwide and 750 million names listed. The website is owned by Dundee based brightsolid, the leading online technology and publishing company.

In March 2010, brightsolid completed the acquisition of the Friends Reunited Group from ITV. In addition to Genes Reunited, the group is composed of Friends Reunited, the original social network with 23 million members and Friends Reunited Dating, one of the top paid dating websites in the UK. Chris van der Kuyl, CEO at brightsolid, commented: "'Long Lost Family' is a perfect fit for our Genes Reunited brand. As one of the UK's leading family history research websites we are committed to helping people build and share their family tree and help them connect with their relations past and present. This series will give families the opportunity to reconnect and be reunited with family members who they thought they would never see again."

About brightsolid:
brightsolid began life in 1995 as Scotland Online. It now has two divisions: brightsolid online publishing and brightsolid online technology. brightsolid online technology is a leading UK independent provider of online IT business services.

Since 2002 brightsolid online publishing has managed ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk, the official genealogy website for Scottish ancestry, in a partnership between the General Register Office for Scotland, the National Archives of Scotland and the Court of the Lord Lyon. In 2007, brightsolid acquired findmypast.co.uk, an online family history site. This was the first website to put the complete birth, marriage and death indexes for England and Wales online. brightsolid also operates the official 1901 census (1901censusonline.com) and 1911 census (1911census.co.uk) websites in partnership with The National Archives.